Success Mantra Young enterprises have even forged academic collaborations with engineering colleges in India's Silicon Valley.

Following in the foot steps of multinational corporations that have leveraged the talent pool on campuses, startups too are making their presence felt in some of Bengaluru's top engineering colleges.

For one, startups have come to be the top pay masters at campus placements. The highest salary package offered to the 2015 batch of MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology student was Rs 24 lakh by city-based enterprise software developer CodeNation.

IT czar NR Narayana Murthy's private investment firm Catamaran Ventures, one of the 30 startups that hired from RV College of Engineering this year, picked three students by offering them Rs 19 lakh per annum, the highest offer in that college.

Many have even forged academic collaborations with engineering colleges in India's Silicon Valley. Hed-X, an education startup, has partnered with Dayananda Sagar University o roll out niche courses in big data, IoT, cloud computing and automaive embedded systems.

RVCE and MSRIT, which have engaged with large firms such as Cognizant, Intel, Apple, IBM among others, are now warming up to startups. “ A lot of startups are enquiring to work with us,“ RVCE principal KN Subramanya said.

“The challenge for startups is to get into campuses and tell students what we have to offer. Startups are the place to be in right now, where one can make it big and help the company grow,“ said Nipunika Sunil, HR executive at CodeNation.

Students too are enthusiastic, as “they get ample opportunity to learn and also, their contributions get recognised,“ according to KS Sridhar, principal, PES Institute of Technology . “We have had startups such as Myntra and Helpchat recruiting our students but we are eager to go beyond just placements,“ he added.

Silicon Valley entrepreneur Pinkesh Shah, also cofounder of the Institute of Product Leadership, said it is inevitable that startups are connecting with educational institutions. “I don't see any other way for startups. And this is a critical catalyst to nurture the start up ecosystem,“ he said.